Clinical Trials for Conception

What You Need to Know Before You Sign Up

By Kelly Burgess

Many people don't give much thought to the process of bringing a new medication – or medical procedure – to the market. The fact is that it takes years of study and research, and the most important part of that research is the clinical trial – the point at which the medication or procedure begins testing on humans.

In the area of fertility research, Dr. Meike L. Uhler, of the Fertility Centers of Illinois (FCI), says the point of clinical trials is to improve outcomes. They use clinical trials to do the following:

1. Establish the safety of the medication or procedure.
2. Determine the proper dosage of a medication.
3. Understand the effect of the medication or procedure on a large number of people.

In general, participation in a clinical trail is restricted to healthy nonsmokers between the ages of 25 and 35, unless the trial is aimed at those of a certain age or with a certain condition.

ClinicalTrials.gov, sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, notes that the decision to participate in a clinical trial is a personal and very important one. Although there is a sense of altruism implicit in participation in clinical trials, participants should also be fully informed about the purpose of the trial and their role in it. Here are the questions the NIH recommends a patient explore before committing to a clinical trial:

What is the purpose of the study?

Who is going to be in the study?

Why do researchers believe the experimental treatment being tested may be effective?

Has it been tested before?

What kinds of tests and experimental treatments are involved?